Posted by Melissa Anelli

We all want to know what’s on that blasted card that Sotheby’s is auctioning off, right? Sadly, none of us are rich – but we are enthusiastic, and we are large in number. And that gives us a tremendous advantage.

Editors B.K. DeLong, Heidi Tandy and myself have been in a mass transit of emails all day. We are working out the details of a way to work it so that if readers of this site – and there are several hundred thousand of you, each day – pitched in as little as $1, we could buy the card from the auction. We would then publish the contents of the card, and use other methods to determine which of our readers gets to keep it. All profit (meaning, minus PayPal and Sotheby’s’ cuts) whether we win or not, goes to Book Aid, the charity for which the auction is being held. This means, in effect, we want to do an indirect charity drive. The money will be going to Book Aid by hook or by crook. But if you all pitch in, we will be able to buy the card and sate ourselves until the release of book five.

PLUS – with the number of readers and massive support this site gets, we have a shot at raising more money for this charity than even Sotheby’s is expecting.

As I said, we’re working on the details, and will have them available to you soon. There are various legal issues that must be worked out. But mull this over for a bit, as we did, and you’ll get just as excited as we are.

This could be fantastic for charity, guys. For us, too, as we’d see the card – but just imagine how much we’d be giving to Book Aid. More than any private investor, that’s for sure. So, stay tuned.